In its most extensive study of secret detention practices to date, the UN released a 222-page report on the practice of secret detention in dozens of countries. The report was to be presented to the Human Rights Council in March but the Council has agreed to postpone the discussion until June. The detailed study conducted by four independent UN human rights experts accuses the Bush administration of utilizing practices in severe violation of international law.

Map of US secret detention facilities, based on information provided by a recent UN Human Rights Council report. (c) Amnesty International. Produced by AAAS. CLICK TO SEE FULL MAP

Following the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. began to limit and remove mechanisms protecting human rights in the context of the Global War on Terror. Lumping the United States with the likes of Stalin and Pinochet, the study cites the U.S. practices as an “unprecedented departure” from established international humanitarian and human rights law, specifically pointing to the Geneva Convention.

The report focuses on the CIA run secret detention facilities and the use of enhanced interrogation techniques on high value detainees. While the U.S. has generally refused to disclose the locations of these facilities, the specifics have slowly leaked out. The study found evidence confirming CIA “black sites” in 20 locations around the world, including Thailand, Poland, Romania, Lithuania and Kosovo.

During the operation of these sites, the U.S. used secret flight plans, charter aircraft and subcontracting agreements to remove evidence of U.S. government involvement. Individual case reports have begun to fill in the missing details of the locations and use of enhanced interrogation techniques at these secret detention sites. Amnesty International has created a visual representation of the UN study mapping the locations of the reported secret detention sites.

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About Christoph Koettl

Christoph Koettl is the Emergency Response Manager at Amnesty International USA and works on urgent human rights situations such as armed conflicts. In his work he focuses on exploring the intersection of technology and human rights, specializing in utilizing satellite imagery or citizen video for human rights research and advocacy. He previously worked and studied in Austria, the Netherlands and Italy and holds an MA in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). His expertise is in International Humanitarian Law, conflict analysis, crisis mapping, video validation and social media forensics and he is a regular speaker on technology and human rights. He has testified on war crimes in Sri Lanka before the United States Congress and his work is covered regularly by numerous national and international media, including Associated Press, BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera and Reuters.View all postsRSS Feed@ckoettl on Twitter

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Denial and rationalizations. To some people, the U.S. does no wrong, and to another group of people, whatever this nation does, it does so that our way of living, democracy based on the Constitution (Irony?) can be protected from people who deny the rights, human and civil, of others.

People who think this way suffer from the American is superior at any cost, that is no matter who is torturted or killed by American military and/or operatives. Is this what it's come to? Is this the promise that American has delivered to its freedom-loving citizens, to citizens who want a better life, a life free of intimidation and threats from anyone? When did our government find itself on the path of ignoring the Geneva Convention rules and regs? Was it after Nuremburg, or after Watergate?

What's worse is that so many of us, American citizens (do we remember what that used to mean) let these things happen. We swallow the government's outright lies about what it's doing, and we do so because it's easier than being involved and demanding that it follow rule of law, or because we simply don't care what happens to "those people," the ones who look, behave, smell, talk, and think differently than most Americans.

So how long can this country survive if most its citizens turn off their BS meters, their compassion buttons, their belief in human rights for all? Don't we see the signs of decomposition, the rot beneath the facade? Apparently not since not enough of us care to learn about an unpopular history (the outrageous of U.S. military takeovers in other countries, the government's incessant lying to its citizens) that the U.S., through so many apologists and revisionists, including more than a few academics, has successfully hidden from its citizens–all under the name of the mendacious term state security, or such some evasive term.

So our country has been torturing people, removing them from their countries without viable proof, evidence, using suspicion as the motive and rationalization. What happened to proving someone guilty?

What Americans also don't realize is that the government will go after any one it deems a threat–I mean anyone, even its smug supporters. It's just a matter of the "right" circumstances falling into play, and you become invisible. And no one will know what happened to you.

Do we want to live this way? Apparently so. If in fact we do, then we should continue to be quiet, continue our denial, our loss of humanity.

And we can teach our kids that lying, torturre, killing are the only ways to ensure freedom, even if those things happens to anyone of us.

What would the founding father say to all of this? That their dream of freedom for all has been accomplished? Or that a nightmare is what it's become?

Denial and rationalizations. To some people, the U.S. does no wrong, and to another group of people, whatever this nation does, it does so that our way of living, democracy based on the Constitution (Irony?) can be protected from people who deny the rights, human and civil, of others.

People who think this way suffer from the American is superior at any cost, that is no matter who is torturted or killed by American military and/or operatives. Is this what it’s come to? Is this the promise that American has delivered to its freedom-loving citizens, to citizens who want a better life, a life free of intimidation and threats from anyone? When did our government find itself on the path of ignoring the Geneva Convention rules and regs? Was it after Nuremburg, or after Watergate?

What’s worse is that so many of us, American citizens (do we remember what that used to mean) let these things happen. We swallow the government’s outright lies about what it’s doing, and we do so because it’s easier than being involved and demanding that it follow rule of law, or because we simply don’t care what happens to “those people,” the ones who look, behave, smell, talk, and think differently than most Americans.

So how long can this country survive if most its citizens turn off their BS meters, their compassion buttons, their belief in human rights for all? Don’t we see the signs of decomposition, the rot beneath the facade? Apparently not since not enough of us care to learn about an unpopular history (the outrageous of U.S. military takeovers in other countries, the government’s incessant lying to its citizens) that the U.S., through so many apologists and revisionists, including more than a few academics, has successfully hidden from its citizens–all under the name of the mendacious term state security, or such some evasive term.

So our country has been torturing people, removing them from their countries without viable proof, evidence, using suspicion as the motive and rationalization. What happened to proving someone guilty?

What Americans also don’t realize is that the government will go after any one it deems a threat–I mean anyone, even its smug supporters. It’s just a matter of the “right” circumstances falling into play, and you become invisible. And no one will know what happened to you.

Do we want to live this way? Apparently so. If in fact we do, then we should continue to be quiet, continue our denial, our loss of humanity.

And we can teach our kids that lying, torturre, killing are the only ways to ensure freedom, even if those things happens to anyone of us.

What would the founding father say to all of this? That their dream of freedom for all has been accomplished? Or that a nightmare is what it’s become?

Hello: I am disgusted that there has been no outpouring of letters, e-mails, phone calls and demonstrations against The War Criminal "colonel"Muammar Gaddaffi of Libya, culpable for the genocide and displacement of the Libyan national population, plane bombings and hijackings,assassinations and abductions abroad, supressing the freedoms of speech,the press, and right to peacefully assemble in Libya and neighboring Arab and African nations, and looting internationally. He further insulted the community of civilized nations by rambling incoherently at the United Nations last year.
I hope that readers will help prosecute him and his illegitimate dictatorship in Libya at the International Criminal Court in The Netherlands, since The United States Federal Government is not doing the job. I hope that readers will also boycott and/or divest from Exxon-Mobil,Amerada-Hess,Royal Dutch Shell, BP, Occidental Petroleum, and Marathon Oil since they are the companies that do business with the War Criminal, and play deaf,dumb and blind to his horrendous human rights record over 40 years in power. Readers can also blog for me, and help me get elected to the US Congress, 4th Federal district NY State this year, and replace the incumbent who voted for the Bush-Cheney-Rice Iraq Oil War, and doesn't even have the Sierra Club endorsement for environmentalism. I am the Nassau County Executive Committee Chairman To The Constitution Party, and I have defended and promoted civilrights/human rights for Amnesty International over my 40 years, and helped the Federal Gov prosecute War Criminals of Iran, Libya, and Syria in the 1990's on the Board of Directors of The Victims of Pan Am Flight #103 because my brother was among the 270 innocent murdered in the Pan Am Bombing in 1988, and I met with US Sec.State Albright, National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, UN Ambassador Bill Richardson and Sens. D'Amato and Lautenberg to keep the diplomatic and economic pressure on the anti-democratic and anti-West terrorist countries, which often conspire together against Americans at home and abroad.Please send contributions to :Dan Tobin for Congress, 115 Atlantic Ave Apt 2A,Hempstead,NY 11550-1204

Hello: I am disgusted that there has been no outpouring of letters, e-mails, phone calls and demonstrations against The War Criminal “colonel”Muammar Gaddaffi of Libya, culpable for the genocide and displacement of the Libyan national population, plane bombings and hijackings,assassinations and abductions abroad, supressing the freedoms of speech,the press, and right to peacefully assemble in Libya and neighboring Arab and African nations, and looting internationally. He further insulted the community of civilized nations by rambling incoherently at the United Nations last year.
I hope that readers will help prosecute him and his illegitimate dictatorship in Libya at the International Criminal Court in The Netherlands, since The United States Federal Government is not doing the job. I hope that readers will also boycott and/or divest from Exxon-Mobil,Amerada-Hess,Royal Dutch Shell, BP, Occidental Petroleum, and Marathon Oil since they are the companies that do business with the War Criminal, and play deaf,dumb and blind to his horrendous human rights record over 40 years in power. Readers can also blog for me, and help me get elected to the US Congress, 4th Federal district NY State this year, and replace the incumbent who voted for the Bush-Cheney-Rice Iraq Oil War, and doesn’t even have the Sierra Club endorsement for environmentalism. I am the Nassau County Executive Committee Chairman To The Constitution Party, and I have defended and promoted civilrights/human rights for Amnesty International over my 40 years, and helped the Federal Gov prosecute War Criminals of Iran, Libya, and Syria in the 1990′s on the Board of Directors of The Victims of Pan Am Flight #103 because my brother was among the 270 innocent murdered in the Pan Am Bombing in 1988, and I met with US Sec.State Albright, National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, UN Ambassador Bill Richardson and Sens. D’Amato and Lautenberg to keep the diplomatic and economic pressure on the anti-democratic and anti-West terrorist countries, which often conspire together against Americans at home and abroad.Please send contributions to :Dan Tobin for Congress, 115 Atlantic Ave Apt 2A,Hempstead,NY 11550-1204

Dear Russian Orthodox Church Patriarchy, The Catholic Church in the USA and Europe, (and I am sure world-wide) has a huge child molestation network in it. They use drugs, masers, and hypnosis to create "multiple personalities" in children; some of these "alter personalities" are programmed through hypnosis and torture to become sex-slaves for perverted and criminal priests, bishops, and cardinals, and then they are reprogrammed back into "normal alters" with amnesia where the kids do not recall the sexual abuse. This is by no means an anomoly, but in fact is sanctioned at the highest levels of the Vatican and constantly covered up. The reason why there have not been any new cases of child molestation in the media in the USA lately, is due to the use of mind control and hypnotic amnesia being induced in the kids where they will not be able to recall the abuse. If my friend Troy Southgate http://www.rosenoire.org does not not object, (and if he still has copies of my e-xmails) he can go to http://www.anonymouse.org and click on the "English Icon" and then on the "Home Page" click "E-Mail" at the top, it will open up a form to send anonymous e-mails and he can 'cut and paste' my writings on this subject and also on masers, (whioh the Catholic Church also uses in mind-control of kids) and send them to you. The Catholic Church is also involved in human and child sex trafficking and they are involved in the buying and selling of kids, and also adults in "underground" slave auctions, where innocent victims of this both children and adults, are pimped out for money, brutalized, and exploited. Russian kids and vulnerable adults are at grave risk by the Catholic Church in your midst; and you should pressure President Putin to close down all the Catholic Churches, and expel the priests, bishops, and arch-bishops from Russia and it's territories. I was tortured with masers and programmed by the "Catholic Mind-Control Experts" to stop writing on the Internet, and they de-patterned me and programmed me to become a Catholic in 2007. In 2009 they made the torture and programming worse to try to program me to become a homoexual sex-slave for a perverted priest who is well-known to Troy, (Priest In Covina, California, U.S.A.) and who will be exposed in due course if Troy forwards you my e-mails on this subject, or if anyone else chooses to do so. The kids in Russia are at grave risk from the Catholic Church there, and it took intense will-power to break enough of my programming to fortunately stop, the perverted priests' homosexual aims against me from being realized. My Grandmother was Russian, and I am 25% Russian and have always taken a deep and affectionate interest in Russia, which I consider to be my Spiritual Homeland… I hope everyone of interest will act on this information as soon as possible, and e-mail all relavant entities and authorities in Russia to put a stop to the predatory aims of the Catholic Church in Russia… Sincerely Archonis…

Dear Russian Orthodox Church Patriarchy, The Catholic Church in the USA and Europe, (and I am sure world-wide) has a huge child molestation network in it. They use drugs, masers, and hypnosis to create "multiple personalities" in children; some of these "alter personalities" are programmed through hypnosis and torture to become sex-slaves for perverted and criminal priests, bishops, and cardinals, and then they are reprogrammed back into "normal alters" with amnesia where the kids do not recall the sexual abuse. This is by no means an anomoly, but in fact is sanctioned at the highest levels of the Vatican and constantly covered up. The reason why there have not been any new cases of child molestation in the media in the USA lately, is due to the use of mind control and hypnotic amnesia being induced in the kids where they will not be able to recall the abuse. If my friend Troy Southgate http://www.rosenoire.org does not not object, (and if he still has copies of my e-xmails) he can go to http://www.anonymouse.org and click on the "English Icon" and then on the "Home Page" click "E-Mail" at the top, it will open up a form to send anonymous e-mails and he can 'cut and paste' my writings on this subject and also on masers, (whioh the Catholic Church also uses in mind-control of kids) and send them to you. The Catholic Church is also involved in human and child sex trafficking and they are involved in the buying and selling of kids, and also adults in "underground" slave auctions, where innocent victims of this both children and adults, are pimped out for money, brutalized, and exploited. Russian kids and vulnerable adults are at grave risk by the Catholic Church in your midst; and you should pressure President Putin to close down all the Catholic Churches, and expel the priests, bishops, and arch-bishops from Russia and it's territories. I was tortured with masers and programmed by the "Catholic Mind-Control Experts" to stop writing on the Internet, and they de-patterned me and programmed me to become a Catholic in 2007. In 2009 they made the torture and programming worse to try to program me to become a homoexual sex-slave for a perverted priest who is well-known to Troy, (Priest In Covina, California, U.S.A.) and who will be exposed in due course if Troy forwards you my e-mails on this subject, or if anyone else chooses to do so. The kids in Russia are at grave risk from the Catholic Church there, and it took intense will-power to break enough of my programming to fortunately stop, the perverted priests' homosexual aims against me from being realized. My Grandmother was Russian, and I am 25% Russian and have always taken a deep and affectionate interest in Russia, which I consider to be my Spiritual Homeland… I hope everyone of interest will act on this information as soon as possible, and e-mail all relavant entities and authorities in Russia to put a stop to the predatory aims of the Catholic Church in Russia… Sincerely Archonis…

Dear Russian Orthodox Church Patriarchy, The Catholic Church in the USA and Europe, (and I am sure world-wide) has a huge child molestation network in it. They use drugs, masers, and hypnosis to create "multiple personalities" in children; some of these "alter personalities" are programmed through hypnosis and torture to become sex-slaves for perverted and criminal priests, bishops, and cardinals, and then they are reprogrammed back into "normal alters" with amnesia where the kids do not recall the sexual abuse. This is by no means an anomoly, but in fact is sanctioned at the highest levels of the Vatican and constantly covered up. The reason why there have not been any new cases of child molestation in the media in the USA lately, is due to the use of mind control and hypnotic amnesia being induced in the kids where they will not be able to recall the abuse. If my friend Troy Southgate http://www.rosenoire.org does not not object, (and if he still has copies of my e-xmails) he can go to http://www.anonymouse.org and click on the "English Icon" and then on the "Home Page" click "E-Mail" at the top, it will open up a form to send anonymous e-mails and he can 'cut and paste' my writings on this subject and also on masers, (whioh the Catholic Church also uses in mind-control of kids) and send them to you. The Catholic Church is also involved in human and child sex trafficking and they are involved in the buying and selling of kids, and also adults in "underground" slave auctions, where innocent victims of this both children and adults, are pimped out for money, brutalized, and exploited. Russian kids and vulnerable adults are at grave risk by the Catholic Church in your midst; and you should pressure President Putin to close down all the Catholic Churches, and expel the priests, bishops, and arch-bishops from Russia and it's territories. I was tortured with masers and programmed by the "Catholic Mind-Control Experts" to stop writing on the Internet, and they de-patterned me and programmed me to become a Catholic in 2007. In 2009 they made the torture and programming worse to try to program me to become a homoexual sex-slave for a perverted priest who is well-known to Troy, (Priest In Covina, California, U.S.A.) and who will be exposed in due course if Troy forwards you my e-mails on this subject, or if anyone else chooses to do so. The kids in Russia are at grave risk from the Catholic Church there, and it took intense will-power to break enough of my programming to fortunately stop, the perverted priests' homosexual aims against me from being realized. My Grandmother was Russian, and I am 25% Russian and have always taken a deep and affectionate interest in Russia, which I consider to be my Spiritual Homeland… I hope everyone of interest will act on this information as soon as possible, and e-mail all relavant entities and authorities in Russia to put a stop to the predatory aims of the Catholic Church in Russia… Sincerely Archonis…

Dear Russian Orthodox Church Patriarchy, The Catholic Church in the USA and Europe, (and I am sure world-wide) has a huge child molestation network in it. They use drugs, masers, and hypnosis to create “multiple personalities” in children; some of these “alter personalities” are programmed through hypnosis and torture to become sex-slaves for perverted and criminal priests, bishops, and cardinals, and then they are reprogrammed back into “normal alters” with amnesia where the kids do not recall the sexual abuse. This is by no means an anomoly, but in fact is sanctioned at the highest levels of the Vatican and constantly covered up. The reason why there have not been any new cases of child molestation in the media in the USA lately, is due to the use of mind control and hypnotic amnesia being induced in the kids where they will not be able to recall the abuse. If my friend Troy Southgate http://www.rosenoire.org does not not object, (and if he still has copies of my e-xmails) he can go to http://www.anonymouse.org and click on the “English Icon” and then on the “Home Page” click “E-Mail” at the top, it will open up a form to send anonymous e-mails and he can ‘cut and paste’ my writings on this subject and also on masers, (whioh the Catholic Church also uses in mind-control of kids) and send them to you. The Catholic Church is also involved in human and child sex trafficking and they are involved in the buying and selling of kids, and also adults in “underground” slave auctions, where innocent victims of this both children and adults, are pimped out for money, brutalized, and exploited. Russian kids and vulnerable adults are at grave risk by the Catholic Church in your midst; and you should pressure President Putin to close down all the Catholic Churches, and expel the priests, bishops, and arch-bishops from Russia and it’s territories. I was tortured with masers and programmed by the “Catholic Mind-Control Experts” to stop writing on the Internet, and they de-patterned me and programmed me to become a Catholic in 2007. In 2009 they made the torture and programming worse to try to program me to become a homoexual sex-slave for a perverted priest who is well-known to Troy, (Priest In Covina, California, U.S.A.) and who will be exposed in due course if Troy forwards you my e-mails on this subject, or if anyone else chooses to do so. The kids in Russia are at grave risk from the Catholic Church there, and it took intense will-power to break enough of my programming to fortunately stop, the perverted priests’ homosexual aims against me from being realized. My Grandmother was Russian, and I am 25% Russian and have always taken a deep and affectionate interest in Russia, which I consider to be my Spiritual Homeland… I hope everyone of interest will act on this information as soon as possible, and e-mail all relavant entities and authorities in Russia to put a stop to the predatory aims of the Catholic Church in Russia… Sincerely Archonis…

Yes compare us to Stalin the U.S has liquidated millions of people and we kill at lesuire just like Pinnochet who writes this stuff a bunch of airhead idealists without the ability to realize life and the world will never be perfect and shit im a left if center left liberal for gos sakes you give us a bad name when you make rash comparisons you should be ashamed

Yes compare us to Stalin the U.S has liquidated millions of people and we kill at lesuire just like Pinnochet who writes this stuff a bunch of airhead idealists without the ability to realize life and the world will never be perfect and shit im a left if center left liberal for gos sakes you give us a bad name when you make rash comparisons you should be ashamed

Kevin D: You can hardly write worth a damn, and who the hell are you writing to and for when you compare a wicked and cold-hearted mass murderer Joseph Stalin, to the United States? Stalin and his secret police murdered between 20-40 million in the former Soviet Union,Mao Tse Tung of Communist China killed between 20-40-million people,and your comparison to the evil, unstable and corporate-friendly Pinochet is untenable.
The massacre of Native Americans was not exactly done in any one person's name, and the liberation of Europe was not exactly ill-advised. Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel, and America is the freest nation in the world. We are supplying humanitarian aid with billions of dollars, and our corporations are wrestling with ways of lowering the costs of various medications to make life better, and safer, if not freer. We can not really have it both ways. Why are you and your friends and business partners leaning with the "Liberal-Left" when the United States is a right-of-center capitalistic democracy? America does not kill at leisure as you casually assert, we act on the best intelligence we can, and democracies take fewer lives generally. I protested the Carolyn McCarthy vote for the Bush-Cheney Iraq Oil War with The Long Island Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives years ago, and if you really want to help the cause for peace and justice, you will help me get the Liberal Party nomination for US Congress, 4th federal district NY State, so I can unseat the incumbent "Democrat" Carolyn McCarthy, since it is a domestic peace party,similar to NY State Right To Life, but she has no Sierra Club endorsement, and has alienated so many with her lies, hypocrisies, and unfunded Federal mandate tax increases on the middle class, which always foots the bill for abusers of power. Thanks in advance for your time, and I look forward to fighting War Criminals for you again in the future. Please send contributions made payable to: Dan Tobin, 115 Atlantic Ave, Apt 2a, Hempstead,NY 11550-1204

Kevin D: You can hardly write worth a damn, and who the hell are you writing to and for when you compare a wicked and cold-hearted mass murderer Joseph Stalin, to the United States? Stalin and his secret police murdered between 20-40 million in the former Soviet Union,Mao Tse Tung of Communist China killed between 20-40-million people,and your comparison to the evil, unstable and corporate-friendly Pinochet is untenable.
The massacre of Native Americans was not exactly done in any one person’s name, and the liberation of Europe was not exactly ill-advised. Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel, and America is the freest nation in the world. We are supplying humanitarian aid with billions of dollars, and our corporations are wrestling with ways of lowering the costs of various medications to make life better, and safer, if not freer. We can not really have it both ways. Why are you and your friends and business partners leaning with the “Liberal-Left” when the United States is a right-of-center capitalistic democracy? America does not kill at leisure as you casually assert, we act on the best intelligence we can, and democracies take fewer lives generally. I protested the Carolyn McCarthy vote for the Bush-Cheney Iraq Oil War with The Long Island Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives years ago, and if you really want to help the cause for peace and justice, you will help me get the Liberal Party nomination for US Congress, 4th federal district NY State, so I can unseat the incumbent “Democrat” Carolyn McCarthy, since it is a domestic peace party,similar to NY State Right To Life, but she has no Sierra Club endorsement, and has alienated so many with her lies, hypocrisies, and unfunded Federal mandate tax increases on the middle class, which always foots the bill for abusers of power. Thanks in advance for your time, and I look forward to fighting War Criminals for you again in the future. Please send contributions made payable to: Dan Tobin, 115 Atlantic Ave, Apt 2a, Hempstead,NY 11550-1204